Want to Keep That Yahoo ID? Better Sign On Soon

In a nod to its most loyal users and in an effort to get people back on their Yahoo (YHOO) accounts, the tech giant said this week it will purge email addresses that haven’t been used in 12 months.

The move, the latest overhaul to Yahoo’s suite of products since CEO Marissa Mayer took the reins last year, will open up a slew of new usernames that have been bogged down for years with inactivity.

Other changes over the last few quarters have been a complete redesign of its homepage, a rule to ban working from home in an effort to foster team spirit and the $1.1 billion purchase of social blogging site Tumblr.

While shares of Yahoo didn't react to the email news, they have risen close to 31% since the beginning of January and are up 70% from 12 months ago.

“I’m excited to share with you our next big push,” Yahoo’s Senior Vice President of Platforms Jay Rossiter said in a Tumblr post. “If you’re like me, you want a Yahoo! ID that’s short, sweet, and memorable like albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com.”

Users that haven’t been on for a year and want to keep their Yahoo ID must sign on to any of Yahoo’s products before July 15th.

Yahoo is having a little fun with it, too. In mid-July, anyone will be able to try and score the ID they want, hoping it becomes available with the purging. In mid-August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs will have to re-visit Yahoo to discover which name they received.